South African Billionaire Set To Expand In Nigeria

The door to corporate growth in Africa is wide open and steadily bringing in financial saavy takers. Wal-Mart has laid its claims in South Africa, but South Africa’s Pepkor Ltd, plans to begin expanding in Nigeria. Pepkor Ltd, South Africa’s biggest clothing company, is owned by billionaire Christo Wiese. The store sells clothes mostly to low income shoppers.

“Africa is awakening,” Wiese tells Bloomberg. “It’s a huge market of almost a billion people with huge resources and a young population. People spend when they’re young.”

Wiese is set to open his first store in Nigeria this year, with plans to expand to about 50 outlets and invest as much as $14 million in the project.

According to Forbes Magazine, Wiese has a net worth of about $1.6 billion. He also controls Shoprite Holdings Ltd, which is Africa’s largest grocer, and owns more than a third of South Africa’s largest private equity company, Brait SA.

He believes the African economies have the chance to grow faster than the economies of the US and Europe, and is making his moves now. In addition to its stores in South Africa, Shoprite has 76 supermarkets in 15 other African nations. This will directly benefit his expansion plans for Pepkor, which he plans to expand in “nodes across the continent.” Pepkor already has 2,800 stores in southern Africa.

Wiese, the son of a farmer and gas station owner in Upington, located in South Africa’s Northern Cape, says that his businesses are “not for sale.” They will be kept in the family. The 69-year-old billionaire predicts he has about five or seven years left to run his companies. His 30-year-old son is already involved in his father’s companies, and when he retires, his two daughters will most likely take his place.

Wiese is certainly not alone in ventures to stake financial claims in Africa. Wal-Mart recently bought 51 percent of Massmart Holdings Ltd, South Africa’s largest wholesaler, to secure its position on the continent. Massmart Holdings Ltd also has investments in 12 other African countries. While Wal-Mart may have stepped into the growing competition in Africa, Wiese is not intimidated.

He tells Bloomberg that with the growing market in Africa, “there’s enough for everybody.”

Source: The Atlanta Post